Paul Bettany On If He’ll Return As The Vision
Paul Bettany has given his thoughts about the return of Vision.
This article is more than 2 years old
Before Paul Bettany returned to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Vision in the wildly popular WandaVision, he thought he was getting fired. But low and behold, Marvel producers not only wanted him back, but they also pitched him the idea that would eventually end up as WandaVision. But now that WandaVision has come to its thrilling end, what about the future of Vision?
When Paul Bettany was asked if he would be playing Vision forever, his answer was music to fans’ ears. “I love Vision. Yes, I’m in.” Okay, Marvel and Marvel’s president Kevin Feige. You’ve revived Vision more times than any other Marvel superhero, what’s one more? The fans of Bettany’s Vision want it and more importantly, so does Paul Bettany himself. Considering the way things were left for Vision at the end of WandaVision, there is still plenty of stories to tell. Let’s make it happen.
Paul Bettany recently sat down with Esquire to discuss such matters. He also spoke at length on other subjects (how his wife, the ever-gorgeous Jennifer Connelly, set up a roller disco in their basement), how he punched Tom Hanks in a scene from The Da Vinci Code so hard that it made the Oscar-winning actor fart, and how his first big Hollywood role as the naked Geoffrey Chaucer in 2001’s A Knight’s Tale put him on the map.
But as things often do, they circle back to point of fact. Bettany as Vision. As Paul Bettany explains, the call he received early on was from Jon Favreau, who was directing Marvel’s Iron Man. “Jon Favreau rung me up and said he was looking for somebody without any personality whatsoever to play the disembodied voice of a computer, and he thought of me.” Bettany says. “I just thought, Such a charming, generous pitch. I’m in.” So it was the 2008 movie that introduced Bettany as JARVIS, the fancy British AI that saw Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark through the three Iron Man movies and one Avengers film. Bettany was unsure just what sort of career he was going to have after Iron Man 3 and one producer telling him that he was finished in Hollywood, to which Paul Bettany fought. Shortly after, the actor formerly known as JARVIS received a call from an unknown number. Thankfully he picked it up because it was director Joss Whedon with a proposal. Whedon asked Bettany if he’d like to join the next Avengers movie as the synthezoid to which Bettany responded with a quick yes.
Avengers: Age of Ultron brought fans Vision. Paul Bettany was then seen again as Vision in Captain America: Civil War and made his final feature film appearance as the superhero in Avengers: Infinity War, where he was killed not once, but twice. When the call came from the Marvel muckety mucks, Bettany was certain that it was for a simple thank you, you did great, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. It wasn’t and it didn’t. Bettany’s Vision wasn’t going anywhere.
WandaVision brought back Paul Bettany’s Vision in a weird mashup series that was set around the style of old comedies such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Family Ties, Full House, Malcolm in the Middle, Modern Family but was centered on Wanda’s grief for losing Vision to Thanos. But as the series wore on (SPOILER TIME) we come to realize that everything we are seeing is what Wanda created. There is no Vision because he truly is dead. But what we also eventually find out is that the dead Vision has been repaired. He has also been revived. He carries the old Vision’s memories, just not his personality, emotion nor his color. This new one is completely white.
We know that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) will be playing a large part in Marvel’s plans for Phase 4. She is scheduled to appear in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. There is speculation that she will be appearing in the next Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home. There is even talk that she will make a cameo in Captain Marvel 2. Her magic will be scattered all over Marvel in the next few years. What we don’t know is the status of Paul Bettany’s Vision.
